Both children and adults often develop some type of skin irritation from a variety of causes including insect bites, plant irritations, contact dermatitis and minor injuries. Persons encountering this situation typically wish to avoid the itching or pain associated with the irritation, and want to encourage the irritation to heal. It is often also desirable to cover the irritated area to prevent further irritation or inadvertent scratching. Ideally, an anesthetic, a medical compound that desensitizes tissue, would provide relief from both itching and pain associated with a skin irritation. However, the use of topical lotions and creams designed for itch and pain relief is generally ineffective. This is primarily due to poor or slow penetration of the active ingredients of the cream or lotion into the skin. The active ingredients contained in the skin creams and lotions are typically not in a form which easily penetrates the skin; and as a consequence, they have less than desired medical effect and evaporate or are rubbed or rinsed from the skin.
Therefore, there is a need for a topical anesthetic delivery system which is capable of delivering a topical anesthetic in a penetrating form to an irritated region of skin and further capable of maintaining the topical anesthetic in contact with the skin for an extended period so that therapeutically effective amounts of the anesthetic may penetrate the skin.